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Jonathan George "Johnny" DiMarco is a Class of 2008 graduate of Degrassi Community School, after he was transferred from Lakehurst Secondary School as a junior. Upon his transfer, Johnny was hated by Degrassi's student body for standing by as his friend Drake Lempkey stabbed and killed school mascot J.T. Yorke. Johnny was clearly traumatized by the incident, but without an outlet through which to channel his feelings, used his "tough guy" persona to get through his time at Degrassi. Being an immature and irrational teenager, Johnny would take advantage of any girl who he could as a sub-conscious coping method to deal with his emotions. Despite Johnny's cold demeanor, he cares very much about his friends and what they think of him. He also takes his studies very seriously, and has a particular fondness for literature. He was formerly the head school bully, but cleaned up his bully act and is now attending Toronto University. In the end, all the dramatics and trauma Johnny overcame on his own made him into a brave and responsible man.

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Character History

Season 6

Johnny was first introduced as a subordinate, a bully minion, to Nic, a Lakehurst student and J.T. Yorke's rival. He helped beat up Toby when J.T. failed to show up for a fight. He later started his own group dubbed "Johnny's gang".

In the episode Rock This Town, Johnny and his friend Drake crash Liberty's 17th birthday party, only to be kicked out by Jay and Spinner when they spray Derek with beer. Johnny is then seen urinating on J.T.'s car with Drake. When J.T. tells them to go away Drake stabs J.T., where he dies later that night. Freaked out, Johnny runs off with Drake when Liberty comes shortly afterward and tries to save J.T.'s life, though it's too late.

Season 7

After Lakehurst burns down, Johnny begins to attend Degrassi with a number of other students, including Sav Bhandari, Holly J. Sinclair, Jane Vaughn, and Anya MacPherson. He also became involved in a fierce rivalry. He was in grade 11.ry with Spinner Mason. It was revealed that all of the cruel and sadistic things he did throughout the rest of high school was due to being traumatized by J.T.'s death and never finding a way to cope.

Johnny originally proposed a peace treaty to Toby in Standing In The Dark (1) after he remembers him from the previous semester, Toby however refuses it, asking for an apology instead. With much reluctance, Johnny apologizes for what he had called him earlier and beating him up. Toby then reacted almost violently, bringing up J.T.'s murder and his killer, causing Johnny to simply walk away.

Later Toby creates a podcast calling Lakehurst out, specifically Johnny. Toby soon realizes his mistake after a conversation with Liberty and attempts to take him up on his offer of peace, however Johnny is long over the idea after hearing the podcast, now he is very much ready for war between the two student bodies. And his Lakehurst buddies are right behind him.

In Death of Glory (1), Johnny is seen picking on Toby in the lunch room, where Spinner intervenes. He tells them to "stop acting like a bunch of monkeys" while Johnny replies to him that they'll get right on that and turns around to walk away. He then turns back and throws a punch which is caught by Spinner. Spinner bends

Johnny in season 7.

his hand back enough to hurt Johnny, which sincerely surprises him. Johnny then leaves afterward. Johnny is also found while Lucas is fighting Danny, when Liberty interrupts. Johnny then briefly attempts to stop Spinner from interrupting while she is hitting Lucas. They are all forced to leave when Jimmy comes saying that the principal is coming. The next day Johnny purposely bumped into Spinner in the halls, Jimmy once again stops Spinner from making a mistake, causing Johnny and the rest of his Lakehurst buddies to grin and walk away.

Later, after Spinner finds out he has cancer, Johnny is seen picking on Toby again. Spinner goes and confronts Johnny who says, "What are you gonna do about it? Sing Kumbaya?" Spinner replies "Not this time" and hits Johnny with two punches. Johnny falls to the ground. As Spinner walks away, an enraged Johnny gets up to go after him, only to be held back by Bruce and Lucas where he is forced to simply shout at his retreating figure.

Sometime later, Spinner tries to make amends with Johnny, who doesn't accept stating that they are now famous because of his line: "When dudes square off, people wanna watch." Johnny offers that after Spinner decides to "man up" that Bruce is rusty, and would love to have a go at him. Later that evening, Johnny is beaten severely by Spinner without attempting to fight back in a back alley. Spinner is then pulled off by Lucas and Bruce. Spinner is soon on the ground due to his cancer related injury, and is kicked by Bruce while they are leaving.

Spinner finds Johnny again, Johnny saying he's through with the fighting since Simpson is threatening to tell the cops. To which Spinner replies he was safe, and wanted Bruce instead. Bruce finds this funny and only says "You're dead," as an acceptance. Johnny is later mentioned to have received detention and fines with Spinner due to their filmed fights.

In Live to Tell, sometime after his scuffle with Spinner, Johnny gangs up on Darcy Edwards during detention with his friend, Bruce. Johnny and Bruce both express interest in being sent to "Miss Hotsauce," the principal's office instead of being stuck with Mr. Simpson, and Darcy snarkily responds, stating that they weren't interested in girls their own age and thus was the only reason to why Johnny and Bruce have never had girlfriends. Johnny famously asks her if she would "apply for the job" to be his next girlfriend and she teases him by pulling her jacket off, then asking: "Depends. What're the perks?" Bruce claimed that him hooking up with Darcy would have been for nothing because she was still wearing her abstinence ring at the time, and Johnny replies to this with: "Right. God says ski trips with pretty-boy Peter don't count." Being caught talking, Johnny and Bruce are both given another week's detention and Darcy is let off early for supposedly good behavior.

They meet up again in Media Immersion when Darcy is supposed to create a new logo for the school, but then is distracted by Johnny being snarky and asking: "Do you think you can flirt your way out of next period? Maybe we can go somewhere and practice Darcy-style abstinence." When Darcy has no way of controlling her life and accusing Archie Simpson of child molestation, she is chewed out by his step-daughter, Emma Nelson in front of Johnny and his group. Offering him some 'extra credit', they go up to the roof courtesy of Darcy having Peter's keys. They make out and are eventually caught by Manny Santos and Peter and Manny calls Johnny a dirtball. Then he is dismissed by Manny from the roof.

It is later hinted that Johnny actually was missing Mr. Simpson now that they had their history teacher sub, before Lucas made a joke out of his comment. It is also hinted that Johnny actually cares about the world around him due to his chosen topic for his "How to" video. Even later, it is revealed that Johnny was actually sincerely bothered by J.T.'s stabbing, and it made him go "off the rails." Despite Johnny's cold demeanor, he is actually very caring towards his friends and what they think of him. He was seen ragging on Mia because she was flirting with another guy while her then-boyfriend, Lucas, one of his friends, was taking care of Isabella.

Season 8

Johnny is shown in the opening credits from Season 8.

In the outdoor-ed episode Alli plays poker with him in his tent. Then Connor puts a snake in his tent for revenge for when he ripped his moth net and bullied him. Sav yelled at Alli for being in the tent with Johnny, because Sav has admitted to dislike Johnny. While Alli was in the tent, Sav was trying to get intimate with Anya, and while he was yelling at Alli for being alone with Johnny, he was describing Anya, too. So Anya dumped him.

Soon Alli develops a crush on Johnny. He is embarrassed for liking a "niner," but seems to be attracted to her confident and forward attitude. Since his relationship started, he has shed most of his bad-boy image and become a true nice guy. At first, Johnny was intrigued by Alli, despite her minor niner status. They start dating secretly, but he breaks up with Alli after she is instigated to reveal their relationship by Holly J. This infuriates Alli and results in her starting an "I Hate Holly J." group on the social networking site Facerange.
Later, Alli wants to take her and Johnny's relationship to the next level, and tries to have sex with him but he refuses the first time. She meets up with him at a party at the Ravine. As Alli and Clare are there, Clare notices the time and leaves. Ali stayed because she felt that she could stay longer with Johnny and make up a lie to her parents. So later on, Alli and Johnny are in a car or a van on top of each other, and Bruce throws condoms on them and said, "No glove, no love." Alli suggested they should have sex. Johnny isn't too sure, but they go into a van with a sign on it that says If it starts a rockin' don't come a knockin'. Afterward, Alli felt really uncomfortable, and when she comes home she feels very upset with herself but she tells Clare different. When they are doing their math test Alli went to the nurse to get checked out because she didn't feel good. Clare comes down and Alli tells her she felt awkward and uncomfortable when her and Johnny had sex.

Johnny tries to make make Alli feel better by buying her a necklace but Alli turns him down and tells him they shouldn't hang out anymore. But later Alli confronts him and tells him that she isn't having sex for a long time. Johnny respects her decision and admits to being a virgin too. They become an item again.

Season 9

Johnny doesn't enjoy being cuddly buddy with Alli in front of his friends. He confronts her and tells her to stop with the PDA and become more mature. So Alli starts to get through to him when she starts sending him naked photos of herself; but it backfires when she takes cute pictures of Johnny holding a stuffed animal, promising to keep them to herself. But instead, she hangs one up on the board at school so everyone can see. Johnny gets upset and sends the naked photos of Ali to Bruce while he is in Mr. Simpson's class and Mr. Simpson finds the Sexting imageand tells Alli to go to the principal's office. As Alli confronts Johnny, she tells him she never wants to see him again.

Next episode, Johnny and Alli start talking again but in a flirty way and Clare doesn't like it one bit. Clare tells Alli not to trust him but she still does the opposite, Johnny tells Alli to meet him in Music Detention to talk. Ali tries to make a move but Johnny pushes her away and tells her he has some type of wart or something on his penis and tells Alli she should get checked out. Johnny tells Ali that he only said he was a virgin to make her feel better, and also admitting he has been with more than one girl. Alli goes to get checked out and nothing is wrong, she tries to get revenge on Johnny by trying to get him to tell the whole school his secret, but instead, he says something sweet and kind about Alli, and she didn't expect that answer.

In Why Can't This Be Love? (1), after getting told off and scolded by Alli, Johnny goes on a search to find true love. He and Bruce are at The Break Room, and spot a waitress named Lindsay. Bruce tells Lindsey that Johnny thinks she is hot. He becomes embarrassed and tells Bruce to shut up. Lindsay is offended, but Johnny admits he does have a crush on her a bit. Soon, Lindsay finds out that Johnny is an immature high schooler while Bruce and Johnny are in a fight. She breaks it up and tells them to leave. Bruce and Johnny make up and go to the spring formal where Johnny and Alli are jealous of each other. Alli is having fun with Dave, and Johnny makes fun of them for being niners.

In Why Can't This Be Love? (2), when Johnny comes over to get a drink, he tells her that she is lame and that her friend is a child. Alli tells Johnny to back off. Later on, Alli finds Dave hilarious when he starts dancing and doing crazy moves. The next day, Alli and Dave are seen playing a card game and Alli realizes that she wants to be more adult like and that Dave is too childish for her after Johnny and Bruce come by and tell them.That they're being like babies. She walks away, making Dave feel like crap. Later on, she apologizes and tells him that she really wants to be his friend and they become friends again as a jealous Johnny watches them.

Season 10

While Sav is looking for a missing Alli, he visits Johnny at college and questions if he has seen his sister.

Johnny denies seeing her, but after he closes the door to his room, Alli is seen sitting on his bed, and it's implied that Johnny wasn't aware that Alli was there because she ran away from home. Alli confesses that she had no one else to turn to, and Johnny agrees to let her stay for the night. While on her Facerange account, Alli sees an advertisement on the Facerange site, and tells Johnny that she wants to move to Vancouver, which is a surprise to him.

Alli and Johnny in 'Hide and Seek'

He points out that the police will be looking for her, so she needs a disguise and tells her to stay another night. Next morning, Johnny recruits the help of his girlfriend, Kayla, who is a drama major. The same day, Johnny gives Alli a tour of the university, hoping it will change her mind about running away. She almost decides to go back home, before Kayla barges into Johnny's room, asking if the "problem" was gone yet. Angered, Alli leaves Johnny's room, saying she shouldn't have trusted him.

Johnny calls Alli who refuses to go back to his dorm or stay longer. After some persuasion, he lets her go off to Vancouver as long as she calls when she gets there. However, when she asks a fellow runaway for help on how to make money or get a place to stay, he steals her bag with her bus ticket. With no where else to go, she returns to Johnny's dorm, only to discover that he ratted her out to Sav for her own good.

Mentions

Season 11

In Smash Into You (1), Alli said that she lost her virginity in a van at 14, referring to him being the other participant.

He goes to Toronto University with Peter Stone. It is unknown if they are friends in college.

His younger brother, Aaron, most likely went to a school named St. George. This school was announced at the Bot Wars, which his brother was supposed to be competing in against Degrassi. His brother was not seen on the Degrassi team, so it is not possible for him to have been a Degrassi student.

Johnny: "Wait.. You're the guy we rolled last semester. Oh! Man, I'm over that, alright? How about a peace treaty?"Toby: "Not unless you say you're sorry."Johnny (with a bit of reluctance): "Fine... I'm sorry I called you a digi-weiner and kicked your ass."Toby: "You stood next to your friend while he stabbed my friend to death!" - Standing in the Dark (1)

Johnny: "Coming here alone... That's brave... Or stupid..."Toby: "Maybe both..? Look, Johnny, I don't want start a war. I think as long as we're under the same roof we should try to get along."Johnny: "That's not what broadcast Toby said... Yeah, we've all heard it... You know before someone 'messes' with you, I suggest you bust out of here."Toby: "No! You don't understand! I want to take you up on your peace treaty.."Johnny: "Treaty's off the table weiner. I'll see you at school." - Standing in the Dark (1)